I laughed. “The only family member of mine you met tonight was Ezra, but trust me when I say
you should consider yourself lucky.” Then I made a face like I was in pain and looked down at the dish. “Unless he said something rude or got too flirty, which he has a tendency to do when he’s around pretty women. If so, I do apologize. He’s just an idiot sometimes, but I know that’s no excuse.”
She didn’t say anything for a second, which prompted me to look back at her. Her cheeks were a little red and she looked away from me instead of meeting my gaze.
“What?” I said.
“Nothing,” she said. “It’s—nothing. Ezra wasn’t that bad. He was funny, and he’s actually sort of
a friend of a friend. Small world, eh?”
“I’ll say.”
I finished rinsing the dish and put it on the rack to dry, then finished off the rest of my glass of champagne and felt myself officially slip into tipsiness.
“So tell me,” she said. “How did the night really go?”
I shrugged. “It could’ve been worse. So, that’s something. There were no big blow-ups. No one yelled. We should all be very proud of that. But still, I would be happy if I didn’t have to spend time with my dad again for at least another few months. Maybe for the rest of the year.”
“He’s really that bad?”
Something about the way she asked this made me think of it as a challenge. It was as if she was
asking me to give her a real example for why I didn’t like to spend too much time around my dad, and if it was examples she wanted, I had a lifetime of them.
“It’s hard to explain,” I said. “But my dad has this thing that he does. One minute, you’ll be talking to him about nothing, and everything will seem fine. He may even crack a joke or something. Then, he will decide it’s time for him to tell you what he thinks—usually it’s what he thinks about a life choice you made or something—and he just lays into you. He doesn’t even do it with anger. He just calmly tells you exactly what he’s thinking, no matter how cruel, and he doesn’t seem to care how it’s going to affect you.”
“That sounds terrible,” she said. “It sounds like it would be impossible to ever really relax around him.”
“Exactly,” I said. “It’s impossible to ever fully relax around him, that’s a very apt description!”
“Did he say anything cruel tonight?”
“Not to me,” I said. “But Adam didn’t look too happy when he left. Perhaps my dad said
something to him when I wasn’t in the room.” I shook my head. “But no, my dad I think has finally learned his lesson when it comes to me. A long time ago, he crossed a line that he could never come back from, and I didn’t talk to him for years after that. I think he got the message, and ever since then, he’s been a little less blunt. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a judgmental asshole, and sometimes he can really piss me off, but he doesn’t go for the jugular anymore. Not with me.”
“What—What did he say that was so bad?”
I didn’t answer right away.
“Sorry,” she said, filling the silence. “That was a really personal thing to ask. You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“No it’s okay.” I put my champagne glass in the sink and leaned against the counter next to her. “It’s just something I haven’t let myself think about for a decade or so. But I remember what he said, I remember his exact words.” I laughed sadly and then began to paint the picture for her. “It was right after Will’s mom took off for good. She had been threatening to leave for weeks, and I knew whenever she got around to actually packing her bags and walking out that door that she was never coming back. So, the day she left, I called my dad and told him I needed the name of a good lawyer, one that could help me figure out all the custody stuff. My dad asked why I needed a lawyer and I said because I was going to get full custody of Will in case his mom ever came back and tried to take him from me.” I felt my fingers curl into fists as I recalled the details of this conversation.
“He told me to forget about getting a lawyer and suggested I go to social services instead. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then he did it. He spoke his mind, in the cruelest way possible. He told me I should give Will up for adoption. He said I should get rid of the kid before he ruined my entire life.”
“Oh my God,” Stephanie said, her voice barely above a whisper. “That’s horrible. I can’t believe he would say something like that.”
“You would if you knew him,” I told her. “But yeah, even I was a little surprised. Even though he wasn’t around much when my brothers and I were growing up, I always thought he was deep down a family man. Why else would he be so insistent on passing his business down to us? But when he thought I was having to pick between my family and the future of my career, he had no problem telling me to abandon my son. His grandson.”
Stephanie made a tsk sound with her mouth. “That’s a shame, since Will is such a great kid. He told me a little bit about your family earlier tonight while we were watching the movie. He seems to get along okay with David Becker Senior, which is a little surprising after what you just told me.”
“Yeah, well now, my dad likes to talk about Will as if they are best friends.” I scoffed. “That’s honestly what makes me the most mad. He acts like he’s this nice, caring grandfather, giving Will huge birthday presents and taking him out to ball games once a month, but in reality, he didn’t even want me to keep Will!”
“Maybe he’s trying to make up for what he said?”
I frowned at her. “No way.”